Pitching in for Hampton's playoff ticket

JOHN MULLINCHICAGO TRIBUNE

Mike Hampton went from Colorado to Atlanta in a Byzantine, three-team, two-day trade. The best part of it for the Braves, other than Hampton's 14-8 record, is that the Rockies and Florida Marlins are still paying the bulk of his $12 million salary. The Braves will owe the left-hander $43 million for three years but that isn't until 2006-08; until then he is a bargain at $5.5 million. . . .

When your team is the latest in a run of 12 straight to win the division and get to the playoffs, how do you motivate? What do you say to a group that has heard and has seen it all? "The only thing I told them," manager Bobby Cox said, "was to do what you do best and that's win ballgames." . . .

Cox knows only too well that the best team on paper, or in the regular season, doesn't always prevail in the playoffs. "I think all the teams, once you reach the playoffs, are hard to beat," Cox said.

Even some teams that don't reach the playoffs might have done better than the ones that did. "I always felt that there were teams that didn't reach the playoffs that, if you put them in the World Series, could probably win the thing and I still feel that way," Cox said. . . .

Despite him having four years of playoff experience with the Houston Astros and an 11-9 mark this season, right-hander Shane Reynolds was dropped from the Braves' postseason roster.

Cox said Reynolds would be on the roster for the NLCS and World Series, both seven-game sets. Also left off the roster for this round was light-hitting Henry Blanco, the primary catcher for Greg Maddux. . . .

The difference from the Sammy Sosa of now and from a few years ago is "he's a little more patient," Hampton said. "He swings at better pitches and when you face a guy like that, with his level of talent, you have to keep the ball in the middle of the zone and go with your best stuff. If you doubt yourself one second, that's when he has you."